A citizen science model turns anecdotes into evidence by revealing similar characteristics among Gifted Word Learner dogs.
Journal
Scientific reports
ISSN: 2045-2322
Titre abrégé: Sci Rep
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101563288
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
14 Dec 2023
14 Dec 2023
Historique:
received:
20
04
2023
accepted:
19
11
2023
medline:
15
12
2023
pubmed:
15
12
2023
entrez:
14
12
2023
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
Dogs that have a vocabulary of object labels (Gifted Word Learner dogs-GWL dogs) have great potential as a comparative model for studying a variety of cognitive mechanisms. However, only a handful of studies, with a small sample size of 1 or 2 dogs, have examined this phenomenon. GWL dogs appear to share many of the same distinctive characteristics, but due to their rarity, it is not clear if these similarities are only anecdotal or indeed reflect characteristics that are similar in these rare individuals. Here we present the first study conducted on a relatively large sample of 41 GWL dogs that were recruited and tested using a citizen science model. After testing the dogs' receptive vocabulary of toy names, we asked the owners to complete a questionnaire about their and their dog's life experiences. Our findings highlight several characteristics that are shared among most GWL dogs, such as their learning speed, their large vocabulary, and that they learned the names of the toys spontaneously, without the explicit intent of their owners. Our findings validate previous anecdotal evidence on common characteristics of GWL dogs and supply additional support to the hypothesis that these dogs represent a unique group of dogs.
Identifiants
pubmed: 38097634
doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-47864-5
pii: 10.1038/s41598-023-47864-5
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
21747Subventions
Organisme : National Brain Research Program NAP 3.0 of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
ID : NAP2022-I-3/2022
Informations de copyright
© 2023. The Author(s).
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